Television stations are currently obtaining a greater percentage of their programming from a satellite source, therefore requiring the dedication of station equipment and manpower for the downlinking and the recording of broadcast programming. Typically, a remote television station or cable television system subscribes to various programming sources whether they be recorded television shows, movies or recorded commercials, and the television station has a receiver for receiving the particular programming to which it subscribed which is normally broadcast from a transmitter via a satellite. A number of satellites may be provided, each of which transmits one or more programs, and a television station may subscribe to more of the broadcast programs. When the selected programming is being broadcast or transmitted via the satellite to which the television station has subscribed, a technician at the television station normally operates the receiver at the station to receive the selected program. The technician tunes the receiver to the satellite and manually operates one or more video tape recorders at the station for recording the programming to which it has subscribed. The recorded video information is then played back by the television for its local broadcast at the designated time or it may be retransmitted directly in the case of a cable television system. This manual reception and operation of the video recorders at the local television station requires excessive manpower and equipment. Futhermore, the recording of programming information from a satellite source often requires use of equipment which might otherwise be used for the local broadcasts of the television station.
The present invention relates to an automated system whereby a television station may subscribe to programming from a remote source of programming. The source of information being transmitted to the local television station via satellite may contain video and/or audio programming information as well as addressing and command information whereby the remote transmitter can operate the local receiver and video tape recording devices to record the selected or subscribed portion of the broadcast programming which the particular local television station has contracted to receive. In this manner, the remote programming may be broadcast during off peak hours when the video tape recorders and other hardware at the local subscribing television station are not otherwise being used in the programming of its own broadcast material.